Factors Affecting Customer Satisfaction with Ecommerce Websites - An Omani Perspective

Abstract

Ecommerce, also known as electronic commerce or internet commerce, refers to the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, and the transfer of money and data to execute these transactions. Ecommerce is often used to refer to the sale of physical products online, but it can also describe any kind of commercial transaction that is facilitated through the internet. These business transactions occur either as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer or consumer-to-business. Ecommerce provides several benefits to sellers over traditional retailing. Some key benefits include: overcoming geographical limitations, lower costs, 24×7 availability of products, gaining new customers through better search engine visibility, create targeted information, enable comparisons while shopping and eliminating travel time and costs for customers. Ecommerce is becoming increasingly popular in Arab countries due to its various advantages over traditional brick and mortar retailing. Sultanate of Oman is one of the important economies in this region and is a key emerging market. Oman has witnessed a boom in Ecommerce activities including B2B and B2C activities. Attaining customer satisfaction is one of the keys to success in today's crowded and competitive online market. This study attempts to find and analyse the important factors affecting customer satisfaction with Ecommerce websites and online purchasing in Oman. The study shows that Price and Ease of Use and availability of multiple payment options are the important factors that positively influence customer satisfaction.